Travel insurance

There are three types of policies. Those being:

• single trip policies which cover the risk of a single holiday,
• annual multi-trip policies that cover the risk of multiple trips during a 12 month period,
• ongoing rolling multi-trip policies that renew over a 12 month period (these are generally provided with a packaged bank account.

The main features of travel insurance are cover for:

• emergency medical expenses,
• the extra cost of coming home either early or late due to illness,
• the cost of cancelling a holiday for specific reasons defined under the policy.

Policies also usually cover other things as well like:

• lost money,
• lost baggage,
• travel delays,
• missed departure,
• claims for injuries.

Some policies also have add-ons either offered free or for an extra cost. These can be things like:

• personal liability cover,
• overseas legal expenses cover,
• personal accident and death benefit.

You should contact your travel provider, tour operator and/or airline to discuss the current situation on travel or to raise claims for cancelled flights or trips. ABTA and the Civil Aviation Authority have published information for customers, passengers and holidaymakers. 

If you have booked a package holiday you are entitled to a full refund from your travel provider under the Package Travel Regulations 2018 in certain circumstances. We are aware that some travel providers have encouraged consumers to claim on their insurance policies and have refused to issue refunds to consumers. The Competitions and Markets Authority wrote an open letter to the travel industry in relation to this.

Before complaining we’d encourage consumers to:

• Ask the travel provider for a refund
• Make reasonable attempts to obtain a refund/voucher from their package holiday provider
• Ask the package holiday provider to confirm, in writing, why they don’t consider a refund can be provided under the Package Travel Regulations
• If the travel provider is ABTA registered to follow the relevant guidance on ABTA’s website

We understand consumers might feel their single or annual multi-trip travel insurance policy is of little use to them due to the impact of Covid-19 – in particular if a holiday has been cancelled or if consumers have no plans to travel again in the immediate future.

However, a travel insurer carries the risk of a holiday cancellation claim being made from when a travel insurance policy starts. So, a consumer may already had the benefit of some cover under the policy, whether or not they travelled.

This means we’re unlikely to recommend that consumers should be provided with a full refund of the policy premiums paid in situations where cover under the policy had already started.  

Many travel insurers are offering consumers a partial pro-rata refund for their annual or single trip holidays. This is usually in the form of a voucher or a cash refund.  

This usually means that the insurer is going beyond what they are required to do by the relevant industry guidelines and the policy terms and conditions.

Where we think an insurer has offered a fair refund we’re likely to conclude that the insurer has acted reasonably. Where insurers have offered a voucher, rather than cash, we usually think that’s fair and reasonable provided that the terms of the voucher aren’t unreasonable or restrictive. However, we will always take into account the consumer’s individual circumstances.

We can't advise whether you can or should book a new trip, cancel a future trip, or give you general travel advice. You should check the latest government advice for guidance.